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AEJ joins Turkish opposition leader’s march for justice to Istanbul

Monday, June 19, 2017

Dogan Tilic of the AEJ (centre, in blue) joined leaders of the ‘march for justice’ to Istanbul.

On Saturday AEJ Honorary Vice Chair and Turkey Representative L. Dogan Tılıç participated in the ‘march for justice’ of Turkey's main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Kilicdaroglu began his march from Ankara to Istanbul on June 14th following the arrest of Enis Berberoglu, an MP of his Republican People's Party (CHP) and former editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Hurriyet.

Berberoglu was arrested on suspicion of political and military spying for allegedly making public a video of Turkish Intelligence transporting weapons to an armed Syrian opposition group.

Dogan Tılıç told Kılıçtaroglu that the AEJ is part of the ongoing struggle for press freedom and for the freedom of jailed and suppressed journalists in Turkey. He applauded the opposition leader’s action in undertaking his long march to İstanbul as a march for justice for all, including for all journalists who became victims of injustice, rather than the march only of a political party.

Kılıçdaroğlu declared: "You cannot talk about democracy in a country where over 150 journalists are in jail. People cannot be arrested for reporting news. People cannot be arrested for criticizing the government. Journalists cannot be detained or arrested for fufilling their duty. We will express all these during the march, this is our duty."